The paper analyses the representation of the fourteenth century Peasant Revolt in William Morris’s Dream of John Ball. Like many Victorian social and religious polemics Morris sets the idealised vision of the Middle Ages in contrast to the overall degeneration of the nineteenth century world. His idealisation of the medieval world is, however, very selective and he calls for more radical changes than suggested by Victorian social reformers. Morris extolls the superiority of medieval craftwork, which for him constitutes a proof that feudalism was a less tyrannical system than capitalism and, yet, exposes the oppressive character of the medieval social system. Looking at the rebellion of 1381 from a historical distance, he exposes its limitations and does not rewrite its achievement into a story of success but rather chooses to praise the very effort which the medieval non-ruling community exhibited in standing up against the powerful establishment, as well as the rebels’ heroic determination and a sense of fellowship. Morris’s visionary account of the major uprising of the medieval third estate brings into focus the issue of social oppression and exposes these aspects of class struggle which Morris considers desirable. Morris places, thus, the medieval events of 1381 in a larger perspective of mankind’s struggle for freedom and presents the Peasant Revolt as a forerunner of the social revolution, which he considers as a necessary answer to capitalist practices of his own times.
 

One of the most memorable metaphors depicting Byron’s poetic process comes from his 1813 letter to Annabella Millbanke, where he refers to poetry as ‘the lava of the imagination whose eruption prevents an earthquake’. As Susan Wolfson has noted (Romantic Interactions 278–280), volcanic imagery also frequently appeared in the early nineteenth-century writings on Byron even before Byron’s self-reflexive image became generally known, and this can be linked to the recurrence of volcanic tropes in Byron’s poetry. A closer examination of the metaphorical discourse of the period, however, reveals that Byron, his admirers and his critics drew on the stockpile of images popular at the time. This article proposes to examine some of metamorphoses of this imagery from its appearance in Byron’s writings to the image of Byron’s poetry not as “the lava of the imagination” but the lava of the turbulent turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Mickiewicz’s essay on Byron and Goethe.
 

As a tribute to Karl Heinz Göller’s interest in early modern English fiction, this paper takes issue with Anna Wierzbicka’s claim of a “shift from the Shakespearean wrath to modern anger” which “both reflects, and constitutes an aspect of, the democratisation of society and the passing of the feudal order”. Investigating the use of wrath and anger in the two versions of Sidney’s Arcadia, it confirms an earlier insight that the genre of prose fiction, for instance, prefers anger to wrath already in Elizabethan times. Moreover, it is shown that the rise of anger is an ongoing process in the period. Together with the decline of wrath, it is related not so much to “democratisation” as to individualization and civilization. These are prerequisites of democratization, but certainly not identical with it.
 

On a first level of meaning Heinrich Detering’s poem Kilchberg is about Thomas Mann’s last years in the village of Kilchberg near Zurich in Switzerland, where the Nobel prize winner experienced the acute waning of his productive powers. Within a broader context the poem is about any writer’s plight for a lasting impression upon the world. The poem argues for the continuation of the often painful process of literary creation, as words will and can explain the world.
 

King Arthur (2004) and Nomad (2005) both choose a medievalist setting aiming for audiences. Both films tell stories of young war lords during periods of political transition which question old allegiances and loyalties redefining national and cultural belongings. Arthur brings the Saxon invasion to a brief halt in the period of Roman retreat and Mansur (alias Ablai Khan) leads Kazakhstan into freedom in the eighteenth century. Both heroes are grappling with alienation from their origins caused by colonial hegemony. Coping with the instabilities of their hybrid identities they choose opposing ways of building new identities. Arthur Fuqua’s king takes on the challenge of merging various cultural heritages founding a civilization that symbolizes the transnational aspirations of contemporary Europe. Sergei Bodrov‘s Mansur annihilates Kazakh colonial past when he unknowingly kills his brother in arms. Erali‘s sacrifice ends the endless disputes of the Kazakhs that originate in their hybrid identity thwarting national restoration. Thus both films serve ambiguous ideological purposes by defining a hostile other. The Saxon invaders represent racist Nazis who were defeated in order to create modern Europe. The defeat of the Jungar invaders helps constructing an essentialist historical order in which the creation of Kazachstan appears to be the restoration of a pre-modern nation. Both films show the ideological power of mediaevalism offering multi-layered methods of addressing a diverse global audience.
 

This article provides a full listing of all known translation of Boethius’s De consolation philosophiae into English and German. The two listings are part of a larger project that eventually will inventory all vernacular translations of the Consolatio, world-wide. The article indicates some of the comparable and contrasting  aspects of the English and German translation traditions. The inventories of translations in each of these two large traditions has developed slowly, over the last century or so, as more past translations are discovered, and as new translations continue to be produced. Such comparable and contrasting aspects of the traditions reveal the interconnectedness between the translations within each tradition and the interconnectedness between the two traditions. This article suggests that studies of these two traditions will yield important scholarly information as studies of the translations and translation traditions proceed.
 

The aim of the article is to analyse the intertextual and intermedial relationships between Tulip Fever, a novel by Deborah Moggach, The Bitter Smell of Tulips, an essay by Zbigniew Herbert from the collection Still Life with a Bridle, with some selected examples of Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century. As Moggach does not confine herself only to the aforementioned essay by Herbert, I will also refer to other essays from the volume as well as to the essay Mistrz z Delft which comes from the collection of the same title.
 

The article examines critical responses to Styron’s controversial novel Sophie’s Choice, and argues that precisely those aspects of the novel that have been the most severely criticized – the sudden changes in narrative technique, the mixing of different genres, the parallels between Poland and America, the comparisons between a slave plantation and a concentration camp, as well as the use of atypical characters – are exactly what makes the novel powerful. Those “faults” serve a universalizing function. The strength of the novel, and its lasting impact, stem from the fact that it is ultimately a moral book.
 

The aim of the paper is to look at the relevance of Gilbert Keith Chesterton’s literary output for the present day discussion of the foundations and future prospects of Europe. Chesterton was wholeheartedly dedicated to the cause of Europe at the time where such commitment, especially in the Englishman, was a mark of eccentricity rather than a reflection of widespread tendencies. Looking for the roots of European identity Chesterton stresses the formative impetus coming from Greek, Roman and Christian traditions. Consequently he stresses the significance of such European values as democracy, reason and the fundamental worth of person. From the impressive body of his writing: fiction, non-fiction, poetry and journalism, Chesterton emerges as a steadfast glorifier of Europe. However, the outlines of Chesterton’s Europe are arbitrary for they do not correspond to any geographical or political criteria. Chesterton, the ardent debater, posits his own idealised version of Europe which he sets out to defend against various manifestations of ‘non-European’ barbarism. His intellectual exuberance make him an unfaltering supporter of the European cause who deserves to be rediscovered and newly appreciated in the turbulent world of the 21st century.